Elrios Fighters
by The Lost Son of Gaia
Summary: Elrios has never been a peaceful land, but after two enemy forces from a different dimension decide to use it as the stage for their last battle, the already shaky balance that prevents the world's destruction will be jeopardized. Rated T for mild violence and some language. Rating may change.
1. Prologue: The Arrival

Hello, there. Welcome to my first fanfiction. I decided to mix up two of my gaming passions of the present and the past: Elsword and Little Fighter. Hope you like it. Don't forget to review. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Elsword Classes:

Elsword: Lord Knight  
Aisha: Elemental Master  
Rena: Grand Archer  
Raven: Blade Master  
Eve: Code Empress  
Chung: Tactical Trooper  
Ara: Sakra Devanam

Disclaimer: Elsword belongs to K.O.G. and Kill3rCombo. Little Fighter belongs to Marti and Starsky Wong.

"This is normal speech."  
_'This is thought.'_  
**"This is speech for Julian and for special circumstances."**

* * *

Location: Unknown.

?'s POV

"Where on Earth did he go!?"

"Over there! I see him!"

"Deep, don't let him escape! We might not have another chance!"

"Come back, you coward!"

"Stop him! Don't let him go through the po-"

Those were the last words I heard before the purple light engulfed me. I had always kept that portal functioning, so I could use it as a last resort to escape. I knew it was a matter of time before _they_ came looking for me. The following battle was fierce, but despite being superior in numbers, we could not stop them. So I had to escape. While the others were holding them off, I ran through the portal, in hopes that it would take me somewhere safe. Some place where I could start everything over.

When the purple light started to fade, I opened my eyes again. I was standing in the middle of an unknown forest, surrounded by nothing but trees and bushes. The full moon was high in the sky, but the night was still as dark as it could possibly be. I quickly checked myself. My purple clothes were completely torn apart, barely covering my grey skin. My cape was stained with blood, but it was barely noticeable, since it was already crimson red. My mask was probably the least damaged item, though, it's surface as smooth as it had always been. Luckily, I wasn't very injured, just a couple of cuts across my arm, but I would have to take care of that later. I had to keep moving. There was no way to be sure that the portal was deactivated after I went in, and I couldn't possibly take care of them alone. So I chose a random direction and started walking.

After some time, I overheard a couple of voices talking. They belonged to a couple of what seemed to be bandits. Just two small, average-looking bandits.

"Are you sure it was around this area?" I heard one of them say.

"Completely. The flash was somewhere near here. Light means people, and people means gold." The other one replied.

"They better have something very valuable. The boss doesn't like it when we waste his time."

"If they don't, we can always ask for ransom."

The two of them laughed as they set off the way they came from. I decided to follow them. I figured it was a nice place to begin.

* * *

Location: Forbidden Tower

Deep's POV

"Goddamnit!" I punched one of the walls in frustration, after sheathing my sword.

He was so close… we almost had him… but of course, he had to escape. And while we were sitting around thinking about how to get to him, he was probably on the move again. We could not use the portal because it was deactivated the moment after he stepped inside, and we had no idea how to activate it again.

"Calm down, Deep. John is trying to track him down. We will find him." I turned towards the grey-haired boy who talked to me, his green clothes covered in blood.

"How are you so certain of that, Dennis?" I asked, more out of sheer annoyance than actual curiosity.

But of course, he had to reply. "He always does. He did it before, and he'll do it again."

I turned around away from him. His annoying positive attitude was still there. Not even after facing death he would stop looking at the bright side of everything. "Your attitude is starting to get on my nerves, you know."

"Meh, you've been in worse moods." He replied.

Some metres away, Louis was checking on his armor, Davis and Woody were helping each other with the bandages, Freeze was helping everyone reduce any inflammation, Firen was cauterizing wounds, Rudolf told his ninja clones to aid the other survivors, and Henry was just playing his flute yet again. However, there were no signs of Jan or Bat anywhere.

"Henry, why don't you stop being so goddamn lazy and look around for Jan?" I asked.

The young archer stopped playing, stared at me for a few seconds, then looked around back to me. "I would be more concerned about our other friends. They seemed to be injured."

"I know that, genius. That's why I'm asking you to go find her." I retorted, trying to not show how annoyed I was by his answer.

Henry sighed and stood up. "Fine. Whatever you say, oh Lord Deep, Sovereign of the Room." And with that, he left.

"Any luck yet, John?" Dennis asked, heading towards the mage.

"I picked something, but the trail is quite weak. I can open a portal and follow it, but there's no guarantee it'll lead us to his location." John replied.

"What are you waiting for, then?" Firen intervened "Open it up! Trail's not getting any stronger."

"Stop rushing things, firefly." Freeze replied. "After all, we have to rest and recover."

"Speak for yourself, snowman!" Snapped Firen. "Maybe you need to rest, but I'm as good as ever!"

"You are always as good as ever." Louis intervened. "You repeat it so many times it's starting to bug me."

"John... just open the stupid portal." I said.

* * *

Location: Banthus' Hideout.

Bandit's POV

It wasn't long before we reached the hideout. However, as we were about to enter, I heard a noise behind us.

I immediately turned around, looking for the cause of that noise. "Who's there?" I yelled. But there was no answer.

"What happened?" My partner asked, confused.

"I heard something." I replied.

"I didn't hear anything. Are you sure you heard something?"

"Yes. It was like... something made of metal hitting a branch or something like that."

"You are imagining things. Besides, why do you ask 'Who's there?' if you know no one is going to answer, ever? Now come on. We have to inform the boss about our findings."

"I swear I heard something. It was over there." I pointed at some bushes in front of us.

"Alright, you big baby. You go talk to Banthus. I'll go check that 'noise' out." With that, we parted ways. He left towards the wilderness of the forest, and I entered our hideout.

It was unusually dark in there. However, I knew this place by heart, and it didn't take long until I arrived at the treasure room.

"What do you want, twerp?" A familiar voice greeted me.

"Sorry to disturb you, boss. We saw a purple light in the forest. We think there might be people wandering in there." I replied to Banthus. He didn't seem very pleased by that explanation.

"That's it? You came here to bother me because you saw a purple light? Go away!" I turned around and headed towards the door, but then Banthus added "Wait. Gather a group and go investigate. If there's something interesting, you come and tell me."

"Sure thing, boss." I replied, and left the room, headed to the rooms.

When I arrived, I stared speechless at the scene I had in front of me. The door that was supposed to stand in front of me was completely destroyed and the floor and walls of the room were completely covered in blood. On the floor I saw a single person, trying hard to breathe.

"What the hell happened here? Where is everybody?" I asked him, as I rushed next to him.

"We... we-were at-attacked." His voice was barely audible, weaker than the most silent whisper. "It k-killed them... all of th-them..."

"Who did this? Who died? What is going on!?"

Then I noticed he had stopped looking at me, and stared at something behind me. So I turned around, and I could feel my eyes widen while I reeled back in horror.

In front of me was a monster even taller than Banthus. With its gray skin barely covered by dark purple rags and a red cape soaked in blood, it stood in front of me, its glowing red eyes staring at me through a blue metallic mask.

The second after that, he grabbed my by the neck and lifted me up with no effort. I could smell the blood in its hands as it pulled me towards his masked face, while I tried in vain to loosen his grip on me.

"What did you do? What... are you?" I managed to say, struggling more to breathe with each word I said.

The thing stared at me, its glowing eyes sending chills through my body, before finally replying with a deep, thunderous voice.

**"Julian."**

Immediately after that, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I could not see what happened, but I noticed a faint purple glow flowing through his other arm. After that, my body went numb and my senses started failing. I did no longer feel it's grip on my neck, or the smell of blood in his hand. The only thing left was the bright glow of those red eyes, slowly being engulfed by darkness too.

And then... nothing.

* * *

Location: Forbidden Tower.

Henry's POV

After a while, I returned to the main room of the Forbidden Tower, where everyone was waiting for me.

"Nothing." I said.

Rudolf took a step forward. "Are you sure you looked around? You didn't just take a nap on the stairs, right?"

"You sent one of your clones to spy on me, didn't you?"

"Probably." Rudolf shrugged.

"Goddamnit, Henry!" Deep snapped "You only had one job. Look for Jan. You have to walk and look around! It's not that difficult!"

Davis stepped in front of the angry swordsman "Deep, calm down. We don't have time for this. We have to get moving."

"Jan will have to stay here. If we lose track of him, we might never be able to find him. And who knows what he might do." Woody added.

"They are right. The sooner we put an end to this, the better." Louis finished.

"Portal is ready. Let's go, people." John called.

"I'll go first." Deep stated, but before he could even step forward, Firen had already jumped inside. "Goddamnit. Why does no one listen to me?"

One after one, the other eight went through the portal too, leaving me alone in the room.

_'This is going to be a long journey'_ I thought to myself as I walked into the portal._ 'But in the end, we will find you... Julian'_

* * *

Katarsus: Well, that's it for the prologue. I was expecting it to be a little less... gory. Anyways, next chapter I will-

Elsword: Where are we? When do we appear? Why didn't you include us yet? Say something!

Katarsus: Shut up, or I swear you will be introduced and killed in the last chapter. And your death will be a lot worse than the bandit's.

Bandit: *curled up in a corner, mumbling to himself*

Elsword: ...forget I said anything.

Katarsus: That's better. Anyways, feel free to review my story. Any feedback is more than welcome. But please be gentle. It's my first time.

Elsword: Gentle like you were with the bandit?

Katarsus: Trust me. To my standards, I was being very gentle.


	2. Part 1 - Chapter 1: Missing Bandits

Welcome back. After giving it some thought, I decided I'll upload a chapter every 5 days or so, depending on my mood, my activities, my creativity and the chapter's length. Also, I'm splitting the story in different parts, and said parts will be split into chapters. Anyways, here's Part 1 - Chapter 1. Enjoy!

* * *

Part 1: The Gathering

Chapter 1: Missing Bandits

* * *

Location: Elder.

Elsword's POV

"Come on, Elsword, wake up!"

"Just five more minutes."

"Wake up, you idiot! We're late! We've got a meeting to attend!"

"Go away."

"Fine. You leave me no choice."

_'Wait… what is she planning?'_

**"Cyclone!"**

_'What!?'_

I immediately jumped out of bed, just in time to avoid the tornado that was casted on it. I inmediatly glared at the person responsible, a young magician with purple hair. "Goddamnit, Aisha! What the hell is your problem?"

"You are my problem, Elsword." She replied, throwing a nasty glare at me. "Hoffman told us he wanted to see us as soon as possible."

I shrugged. "So? Send someone else. Raven, for example."

But Aisha shook her head. "Raven is in Velder, training the local garrison."

I thought for a second. "Well, how about Rena?"

"She is probably there waiting for us." Aisha replied.

"Eve?"

"At the Altera Plains."

"Chung?"

"Hamel."

"Ara?"

"Feita."

I sighed. "I don't have a choice, do I?"

Aisha giggled "You actually thought you had one? Now come on. They are waiting." And with that, she left the room.

"This is going to be a long day." I muttered to myself.

* * *

Rena's POV

_'They should have arrived by now…'_ I wondered, looking at the clock. _'I wonder if they are okay… no, they should be fine. Elsword is a terrific swordsman and Aisha is an excellent magician.'_

Just then, I heard a voice calling me. "Rena! We're here!"

I immediately turned around to see Elsword and Aisha running towards me. I waved my hand to greet them as they arrived.

"Sorry we're late, we had a minor inconvenient." Aisha said, looking at Elsword, who was still rubbing his eyes.

"Well, at least I didn't try to kill you while you were asleep." Elsword replied, a little annoyed.

_'Oh, not this again. We don't have time for another one of their silly fights.' _I thought.

"Well, it was the only way to wake you up. Either that, or drag you here."

"Try dragging me. See how it works for you. Come on, I dare you."

"Cut it out, you two!" I snapped. Ever since we started our journey, I had to stop their fights. In fact, they were already fighting when I first them. "We don't have time for this. You can fight later." Then I proceeded to grab them by the wrists and drag them inside the town hall. "Now let's go meet Hoffman. He's been waiting for us for a while now."

* * *

Aisha's POV

"So, let me get this straight." Elsword said. "You're telling us that we should check Banthus out because he _hasn't _stolen anything at all?"

"Are you sure he didn't just get bored of being a bandit?" I added.

"This is Banthus we're talking about. It's highly unlikely that he has just stopped robbing people for no reason." Hoffman said, who was left in charge of Elder since Wally left. "We believe he is planning to raid the town, but we are not sure. So I need you to sneak into Banthus' hideout and find out what he's up to."

"We'll do our best." Rena said, smiling like always. "You can count on us."

"That's good to hear. Thank you for your assistance." Hoffman replied.

"Alright, let's get going." Said Elsword, already heading outside.

* * *

Location: Shadow Forest

Deep's POV

Of course it had to fail. That's what always happened. All the time. Turns out that rushing things made portal go haywire and it threw us all over the place. At least, that's what John was explaining to us.

"...and it threw us all over this place. What is this place, by the way?."

"Don't know, don't care, don't plan to stay." I looked around. The trees in this forest were ridiculously large. I can bet some of them were even moving. "I just want to find Julian, kill him, and get this over with. This war has been way too long, and I don't plan on letting it last any longer."

"Let me remind you that we're only three now." Henry was already lying down on the grass, despite having just arrived. "We should look for the others first, and then we can-"

"We don't have any idea where the others might be!" I interrupted."We can't waste any time! Now get up, and let's move out. We're wasting daylight."

"Deep, calm down. Henry is right." John intervened. "We can't possibly take on Julian by ourselves. We need more people. But we should at least find out where he went."

I just glared at John. But they were right. The three of us were not strong enough to take on Julian. We would probably get killed if we tried. However, if we knew where he was, we could keep an eye on him until we were reunited. "Fine. We'll split up and look for Julian. Whoever finds any signs of Julian will signal the others. Once we know where he is, we'll search for the rest. Now let's go." With that said, we parted ways. Hopefully, we would find him before someone else did.

* * *

Katarsus: Well, that's the end of the first chapter, but the story is far from over.

Deep: People need to see me more. They need action, goddamnit.

Katarsus: Shut up. So far, you've had more POVs than any other character. And you also appeared in every single chapter so far.

Deep: I had 2 POVs in one chapter and one prologue. It's not that impressive. Even a random dead bandit had one.

Raven: When do I get to appear?

Katarsus: In the chapter called "Three Swords."

Eve: And how about me?

Katarsus: "Flaming Whirlwind."

Chung: And me?

Katarsus: "Caged Phoenix."

Aisha: Wow, you really thought this through, didn't you?

Katarsus: Just a bit...

Deep: And when do I appear again?

Katarsus: Keep talking, and you'll appear at "The Swordsman's Death."

Elsword: Hey! What did I do this time?

Aisha: He isn't talking about you, idiot!

Katarsus: Anyways, expect quite a lot of action for the next few chapters.

Dennis: Oh, man, this is going to be epic! Finally some action after all this time! By the way, in which chapter will I appear?

Katarsus: Haven't thought about a name for that one yet.

Jan: Am I going to appear in this story or not?

Katarsus: I don't know. We'll see what happens. Anyways, don't forget to review. I crave your feedback. Next chapter: The First Encounter. See you all there.


	3. Part 1 - Chapter 2: First Encounter

Katarsus: Hello, and welcome to Part 1 - Chapter 2. Now the fun begins.

Elsword: So it means we finally get to fight stuff?

Katarsus: Yes.

Deep: Do I get a POV?

Katarsus: No.

Deep: Why not?

Katarsus: You already had more than everyone else.

Deep: I had two!

Katarsus: There's a total of 17-19 protagonists in this story. Out of those 17, only 5 had POVs. And you are the only one with 2. The rest either have 1 or 0. Now stop complaining and let's start this chapter already.

* * *

Part 1 - Chapter 2: First Encounter.

* * *

Location: Shadow Forest.

Henry's POV

The forest was just too long. There was no way I was going to find anything, no matter how carefully I searched, so I decided to just keep walking until I got bored, take a small nap and tell John and Deep that I hadn't found anything, which would be technically true. It was an overall decent plan, as I was not expecting to actually find anything while I was walking. But it failed, just like all the other plans we've had so far.

On my stroll, I caught a weird smell. So I decided to look around, and found an awful lot of blood staining the trees, the bushes and the grass I was stepping on. There was no wild animal that could have done that. It was most likely caused by Julian. However, I decided not to signal the others until I was completely sure. So I began looking around for more clues, until I found a hidden cave. I didn't need to venture too far inside to notice that the place was rigged with blood. _'Yup. Julian was definitely here.' _was my first thought, so I quietly left the cave, just in case Julian was still around, climbed to a tree, and fired a fire arrow straight into the sky. _'I hope they noticed that.' _I thought to myself.

I decided to keep an eye on the cave, just in case something else happened. _'Seems like I'll have to postpone my nap.' _I thought, slightly dissapointed. So I stayed up in the tree, and waited...

* * *

Elsword's POV

"Hey, Elsword, wait! You're going way too fast, slow down!" Aisha yelled behind me. Not that I actually cared or anything, but I decided to slow down a bit.

"You should run more often. You don't seem like you're in good shape." I replied with a grin, which was answered with a glare and a punch in the shoulder.

"Well, I'm still strong enough to smack you with my staff." She said. "And I won't mind doing it if you keep up with... that..." she stopped talking, and started titliing her head backwards, looking up at the sky. So I turned around and glanced upwards as well, and saw a flaming arrow soaring through the air... headed straight towards us.

"You two get out of there!" Yelled Rena, who at somepoint managed to catch up to us.

We immediately dove aside, dodging the arrow that landed exactly between where Aisha and I were just a few seconds before.

"Where the hell did that come from?" I asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, Banthus' hideout is that way." Rena pointed out. "The arrow was probably shot from there."

"But how did they know we were coming, or where to shoot?" Aisha asked, looking a bit confused. "We saw no one on our way here, and there was nothing out of the ordinary in the forest."

"Well, we'll worry about that later. Now we've got stuff to do." I said, and we resumed our travel.

After some minutes, we finally reached Banthus' hideout. But there was absolutely no one outside.

"That's odd. Usually this place is swarming with bandits. But there are none around." Aisha muttered, looking around. "Are we sure they didn't just leave?"

"Well someone had to shoot that arrow." I replied. "Come on, let's go inside."

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you." A voice called from above.

We all glanced upwards to see a guy with brown hair and matching brown eyes, wearing a simple orange shirt and green pants, and carrying a long bow next to a carcaj full of arrows.

"You are the one that shot that fire arrow, didn't you?" I asked, with my hand grasping tightly the grip of my sword. It wasn't that much of a mistery, since he was the only archer we have seen in the entire day (other than Rena).

"You mean the flaming arrow? Yeah, that was me." He said, climbing down from the tree.

I didn't need to hear anything else. With my sword already out, I glared at him. "Stay right there and don't move!" I yelled. "Now tell us what Banthus is planning, and we'll let you go."

He looked at me with a sarcastic confused look. "I have no idea what you're talking about. If it is about the arrow, I'm sorry."

"Don't lie to me, you stupid bandit! Now tell me what's going on!" I yelled, even louder than before.

Now it was his turn to yell. "Hey, I'm not a bandit, you moron! And I seriously don't know what you mean!"

That's all I needed to hear. "I guess I'll have to beat it out of you, then." And with that, I dashed forward, while he... searched for something in his pocket. He then took out a... flute. _'A flute? What is he going to do? Bore me to death with lousy music?' _I grinned as I drew closer. Then he started playing.

A weird feeling started to engulf me. I suddenly stopped feeling the ground below my feet, as the flute started humming a soft song that made me feel drowsy. I tried to stay awake, but the melody was too hypnotic. At one point, my sword slipped from my hand, as I felt myself levitating. _'I guess I was right after all.' _I thought, as my consciousness slowly started to fade. I heard Aisha yell something, then the music stopped, and I fell to the ground, hitting it with the back of my head before finally losing consciousness.

* * *

Aisha's POV

**"Chain Burst!"** I yelled, releasing a dozen fireballs towards the mysterious archer. He immediately stopped playing his flute and dove to dodge the fireballs.

"Rena, go check on Elsword. I'll handle this bandit." I told her, facing the man while she ran where Elsword was lying down.

"For the last time, I'm not a bandit!" The man said. Not that I was going to believe that, anyways.

**"Blizzard Shower!"** I yelled, casting several ice shards that darted towards him. However, he grabed his bow, and in a second, half of the shards were destroyed by arrows. I've got to admit I was impressed by his archery skills, but he would need way more than that to beat me.

**"Magic Missile!"** This time, I casted a single spell that went after him. He responded by throwing his bow up in the air and drawing his elbows back, with his palms wide open, as if he was about to push someone. And then he finished the motion sending both arms forward. Then, a strong gust of wind was sent forward, dissipating the magic and sending me flying backwards towards a tree.

When I looked up, I saw him standing right in front of me, with his bow strapped to his back, his arms crossed and an annoyed expression on his face. "Would you cut it out? I have been awake for several hours now, and I seriously need a nap. Plus, you are ridiculously loud and I can't stand it anymore." He said, turning around.

"Why you!" I yelled, jumping up and hitting him with my staff, making him lose his balance and fall to the floor.

But as I was about to hit him again, Rena stopped me. "Aisha, wait!" She said, grabbing the end of my staff. "I don't think he is a bandit."

"How do you know? It's not like you had to fight him." I replied.

"He would have attacked you if he was a bandit." Rena explained. "But he only defended himself from your and Elsword's attacks, and he didn't try to shoot either of you even once."

"Finally someone with common sense." The guy muttered, standing up. "You shouldn't rush into action without thinking."

I could feel my face boiling up with a mix of anger and embarrassment. That's exactly what I had told Elsword when we met, after telling him I was not a bandit... _'Oh Hell. When did I turn into Elsword?' _I thought to myself.

"But that still doesn't explain what you're doing here, guarding the entrance to a bandit cave." Said Rena, looking at the man.

"Right. I'm keeping an eye out in case something weird happens." He replied. "Oh, I'm Henry, by the way."

"Rena." She said, with a smile. "This is my friend Aisha." She added, pointing at me. "And the red-haired boy over there is Elsword." She finished, pointing at Elsword who was already starting to regain consciousness.

"Urgh... my head is killing me." Elsword muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "What happened?"

"You got knocked out by a flute." I replied, smirking. "Good thing I saved you from getting killed by it."

"Ha ha, very funny." Elsword said, sarcastically. Then he looked at Henry and added: "What's going on?"

"Turns out I'm not a bandit." Henry replied. "And that you should think a bit more before-" He suddenly stopped talking as we heard a groan coming from the cave.

As we turned towards the direction of the noise, we saw a figure coming out of the caves. It looked like a regular bandit, but his skin was dark grey, his eyes were glowing red, and he had some awful scars on his chest. From him emanated a dark purple aura, the kind that you would only find in demons.

"Oh, shit." Muttered Henry, as he quickly grabed his bow. "This is bad." I turned and noticed Rena was already prepared to shoot.

The bandit then released a loud scream and dashed towards us, but stopped when two carefully aimed arrows pierced through his skull and chest at the same time.

"Nice shot." I heard Rena say.

"Same to you." Henry replied.

"Mind if I ask what the hell was that?" Elsword said.

"Yeah, I'm a bit curious too." I added.

"We can explain that, but it's going to take a while." Someone said behind us.

We turned around to see a magician with medium brown hair, a grey and blue outfit, an aqua cape, a wooden staff and a red pendant, and a swordsman with spiky brown hair, a yellow t-shirt with its sleeves ripped off, brown pants, and a big sword on his hand.

"You could have arrived sooner, you know." Henry said.

"Sorry, but we were quite far away when you shot that arrow." The man with brown hair said.

"Also, we wanted to give you a taste of your own medicine. That should teach you to come over when people need your help." The swordsman added.

"Keep dreaming, Deep." Henry replied, with a grin. "I won't stop being lazy for a 10-minute delay."

"Anyways..." the magician intervened. "We should probably tell you what's going on. But we can't do it here. If one of them showed up, the rest will probably be here soon."

"Okay, we'll take you to Elder. We'll talk there." Rena said.

"Sounds good enough to me." Henry said, yawning. "Maybe we can take a small nap while we're there."

"Keep dreaming, Henry." Deep retorted.

"That's the plan." Henry replied.

* * *

Katarsus: Well, that's the end of chapter 2. Next chapter will probably be short, since it's just explanations, and I don't want to bore you too much. It will probably be mostly from John's POV. He deserves at least one POV before we switch to the other 7 Little Fighters.

John: :D

Katarsus: Anyone has any complaints?

Elsword: When do I get to kill stuff?

Katarsus: Be patient, Elsword. You'll have your chance soon enough.

Aisha: You're going to need more than that to keep this idiot calm.

Elsword: That's right. I can be quite- wait... I'm not an idiot!

Aisha: Says the brave swordsman that got defeated by a flute.

Elsword: Well, at least he didn't send me flying by pushing air, like he did with you!

Katarsus: I'm not in the mood for this. Next episode: The Masked Demon's War.

Aisha: BRAT!

Elsword: MIDGET!

Katarsus: With possible character deaths!

Aisha and Elsword: ...

Katarsus: Way better. See you all later!


	4. Part 1 - Chapter 3: The Masked Demon

Hello, and welcome to Chapter 3. Now this chapter is rather short. Explains what's already obvious if you've been paying attention. Also, this whole chapter is from John's POV.

* * *

Location: Elder.

John's POV

We took the chance to introduce ourselves and talk a bit on our way to Elder. By the time we arrived, the sun had almost set. However, the town was still bustling with activity. As we walked along the road, I could notice that several people were looking at us and were mumbling to each other. I tried to keep my composure, and not listen to them. My friends, on the other hand, weren't so easy-going. The phrases "I'm not a goddamn bandit!" and "What are you looking at, moron?", repeated endlessly by Henry and Deep respectively, did nothing but draw even more attention towards us. Eventually, we arrived to a rather big house.

"Here we'll be able to talk in private." Rena said, leading us inside.

"Looks nice." Henry pointed out. "What's this place?"

"Here's where we live." Aisha exclaimed. "This is our house."

"A house this big for only three people?" Deep asked, looking around.

"Actually, we're seven people." Rena said.

"I see." Deep said.

"So it means you have a spare bed for me to sleep now, right?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, we do." Elsword replied, letting out a loud yawn. "Actually, I think I'll take a nap too. My sleep was rudely interrupted this morning, and I have to make up for the lost time."

After the two of them left, Rena jumped straight to business.

"So... what's your story?"

"Well, we are members of a group called 'Little Fighters', who united to stop a demon called 'Julian', who was trying to take over the world with his army of darkness." Deep started.

"We've been at war with Julian since we joined forces, and we fought against his army for months." I continued. "Eventually, we arrived at his lair, in a place called the 'Forbidden Tower', to end this war once and for all. However, during our last battle, he managed to escape through a portal. We were able to track him down. So we followed him here."

"How many of you travelled here?" Asked Aisha.

"As far as I could tell, there were ten of us." Deep replied.

"Ten?" Aisha asked, her eyes wide open. "How did you teleport ten people here?"

"Wait... where are the others? We found no one on our way here. What happened to the other seven?" Asked Rena

"That's the problem." I explained. "During the travel, the other seven split up from us, so they probably ended up scattered throughout the world. We have absolutely no idea of where they might be, and we need to find them before we face Julian. We can't defeat him on our own."

"So that thing we saw on the cave... it was related to Julian, right?" Asked Rena.

"Yes. That's one of the things that makes Julian so dangerous. He kills whoever stands in his way, and uses their souls to become more powerful. The soulless corpses then become his minions. That's why his army was so big last time we fought him. All the bandits that hid in that cave are probably under his influence. Even the one you call Banthus."

"Banthus had a large amount of helpers. That means Julian must be controlling at least 40 people, maybe even more." Pointed out Aisha.

"That means we need to find the others quickly." Deep said. "If he managed to kill 40 people in just one day, in a couple more days he should have an army strong enough to raid this village."

"We'll help." Rena said. "But for now, we should go to bed. We'll start looking for them tomorrow."

"Sounds good." I said. "Thank you for your help."

* * *

Remaining Fighters

Davis  
Dennis  
Firen  
Freeze  
Louis  
Rudolf  
Woody

* * *

Well, there you have it. I told you it would be short. Now, I'll start adding a list at the end of each chapter, to keep track of the missing people. Next chapter: Flaming Whirlwind. See you then!


	5. Part 1 - Chapter 4: Flaming Whirlwind

Part 1 - Chapter 4: Flaming Whirlwind

* * *

Location: Altera Plains

Eve's POV

"My systems are functioning at optimal capacity, but my energy reserves are running out. I will need you to escort me back to Elder soon." I told my servants Oberon and Ophelia, who were rummaging around looking for certain components that the Ponggos requested. Meanwhile, my nasod drones Moby and Reby were hovering around, scouting the area for possible threats.

"Understood, Miss Eve." Ophelia replied.

"Warning. I am detecting a strong source of heat coming from the south." Oberon informed suddenly. "It probably belongs to the nasod Ignis. If I am right, the nasod Leviathan must not be far away either."

"The heat emanated is enormous. It must belong to Ignis." Ophelia added. "What's the course of action, Miss Eve?"

I assessed the situation. I did not have enough energy to fight two enemies as strong as Ignis and Leviathan. We had to escape. "We are evacuating the area." I told them as I started walking north, followed by Moby and Reby.

"Yes, Miss Eve." They both replied, following me.

The several mountains of scraps and electronic components that were scattered throughout the area, and the active nasod that were still roaming around, turned the Altera Plains into a very dangerous region. However, the strongest nasod in the area were by far Ignis and Leviathan. The nasod of Fire and Water. However, as long as we had our thermal sensors activated, we would be able to locate Ignis before he could find us first.

"Warning." Oberon stated suddenly. "I am detecting a second source of heat up ahead. It is possible that-" He was unable to continue, as a figure leaped out of the shadows and fired a stream of ice toward him, freezing him on the spot. Of course, that figure was no other than the nasod of Water, Leviathan. A couple of seconds later, the nasod Ignis showed up as well.

"Ophelia, unfreeze Oberon. I will fight against Ignis and Leviathan." I commanded.

"Miss Eve. You stated before that your energy reserves were depleting. You will not be able to sustain a fight." Ophelia stated.

"Ophelia, follow my commands. Unfreeze Oberon." I replied.

"Understood, Miss Eve." Ophelia said, and dashed towards Oberon.

I turned around to find that Ignis was throwing a punch at me. I dodged to the left, and sent my drones to attack. However, Leviathan appeared from behind him and hit me with his cannon, making me lose my balance and fall to the floor. Then both nasod pointed their cannons at me, and prepared to shoot. I closed my eyes and waited for their attack. However, it never came.

I heard three explosions, so I opened my eyes again, and noticed that both Ignis and Leviathan were stumbling backwards, with their visors slightly cracked.

"Pow! Right in the kisser!" Exclaimed a voice behind me. I turned around and saw two young humans. One had slightly darkened blond hair and was wearing red and black clothes, while the other had spiky grey hair, with purple clothes and a white cape. The blond boy then turned to his friend. "I bet you I can take out mine before you take out yours, ice cube."

"You wish, box of matches." Replied the other, drawing what seemed to be a crystal sword from his... hand?

"Settled then. Loser pays next meal." The blond boy stated, dashing towards Ignis while the grey-haired one went after Leviathan.

"Miss Eve!" Ophelia exclaimed, followed by Oberon. "Were you damaged?"

"Status check... all green." I replied. "Oberon, scan the newcomers."

"Yes, Miss Eve." Replied Oberon, scanning the two humans as they fought Ignis and Leviathan. "Both of them are humans, but their body temperatures are highly abnormal. The blond human's temperature is extremely high, while the other's temperature is way below the negatives. His sword seems to be made of ice as well. It is likely that the blond human is capable of pyrokinesis, while the grey-haired human possesses cryokinesis."

I looked at the humans as they fought, interested. The blond one was successfully dodging all the attacks, and then counterattacking with a few punches and kicks. The grey-haired one, on the other side, was constantly parrying Leviathan's strikes, and then cutting through him with his sword.

At one point, Ignis aimed his cannon and fired straight at the blond boy, but he didn't even bother dodging. After a while, he quickly dashed left and charged at Ignis, completely covered in fire. He leapt towards Ignis and delivered a powerful kick him in the visor with both feet, followed by a fireball that landed on the same spot, making Ignis stumble backwards.

Meanwhile, Leviathan casted a blizzard shower from above, but the grey-haired boy dodged all the ice shards. Then, he lifted his fist, which was glowing light blue, and slammed the ground, casting an ice column that hit Leviathan strongly in the chest, making him stumble backwards, and collide with Ignis.

At that moment, both humans looked at each other and nodded, and the grey-haired one stepped forward, grabbing his cape. He then started spinning, creating a whirlwind of cold air that quickly reached the nasod. After that, he signaled his teammate, who ran forward, emitting a very strong heat as he approached the whirlwind. When he reached the eye of the whirlwind, where the two nasod were standing, he let out a massive explosion, causing the whirlwind to drag the flames along. On the other side, the blond boy dove out, almost unharmed.

"Man, that was freezing." The blond boy said, as he dusted himself off. "You really were taking this seriously, Chilly Willy."

"Serious enough to get you to pay a meal, flame head." The grey-haired boy replied, with a smirk.

Slowly, the whirlwind dissipated and the flames faded, revealing the scraps that once were the most dangerous nasod in the area.

"Hey, are you okay?" The blond boy asked, running towards us, followed by the grey-haired man.

"Yes, we are fine." I replied, looking at my companions. "Your assistance is greatly appreciated."

Moby and Reby, meanwhile, started hovering around them playfully.

"Well, I'm glad. Hey, can you do us a favor?" He asked. "We're not familiar with this place, and we're looking for some people. Do you mind giving us a hand?"

"Well, I have to return home and restore my energy, but I can help you once I'm fully powered." I explained.

"Great! Wait... are you a robot or something?" He asked, visibly curious.

"I am a nasod. We are not just mindless robots." I replied, slightly angry. It reminded me a bit of the time when I first met Elsword.

"Alright, alright. Sorry." He glanced behind me, probably to make sure Oberon and Ophelia were not going to attack him. "Anyways, I'm Firen. And the one next to me is my brother Freeze."

"It is nice to meet you." Freeze said.

"Nice to meet you too. My name is Eve." I pointed at my servants. "These are my servants Oberon and Ophelia." I then pointed at the two playful drones hovering around "And those are my battle drones, Moby and Reby."

"Well, should we get going? We are kind of in a hurry." Firen asked.

"You are always in a hurry. Calming down won't kill you." Freeze replied.

* * *

Location: Altera.

"Wow... we're on a floating island? That's awesome!" Firen exclaimed, peeking through the edge of the island, while the rest of us waited for the transport ship that would send us back to continental land.

"So... why is this piece of land floating, exactly?" Freeze seemed quite curious about this place, having asked a number of questions about the nasod and ponggos.

"It is unknown. No one was able to find a proper explanation." I replied.

"Ship's coming!" Firen jumped away from the cliff and returned to us.

Eventually, a massive flying ship arrived, and all kinds of people started to descend. However, my eyes were fixed on a single girl, with long blond hair and pointy ears, who quickly approached me. "Eve! There you are!" She reached forward and hugged me tightly. After a few seconds, she broke the embrace. "I need to talk to you."

"Hello, Rena. What did you want to talk about?" I asked.

"I need you to tell me if you saw anyone from this list." She then gave me a list with seven names, with a small description of each person next to them. I recognized two of them right away. "If you did, I need you to find them and take them to Elder as soon as possible. Can I count with you?"

"I am way ahead of you, Rena." I pointed to Firen and Freeze, who were looking at us.

"Hey, Eve! Who's the hottie?" Firen shouted from afar, making Rena blush.

* * *

Location: Transport Ship

"So you are telling me that they destroyed both Ignis and Leviathan by themselves?" Rena looked rather impressed as I told her how I met the strange duo. "When John told me they were powerful, I was not expecting something like this."

"Apparently, they have pyrokinesis and cryokinesis, plus abnormally low and high body temperatures. That was probably what made them immune against Ignis and Leviathan's attacks." I explained.

"It seems to be quite a group." Rena sighed, looking at the two sleeping figures. "I wonder how the other half are."

"It shouldn't take too long to find them. You gave Aisha a copy of that list, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. She was in charge of telling the Raven, Ara and Chung. Since she can teleport, she can travel faster than me. And she already knows where they are, so it shouldn't take long." Rena looked outside the window of the ship, staring at the horizon. "I wonder how she's doing so far."

* * *

Remaining Fighters (the ones who have been found with be in bold letters)

Davis  
Dennis  
**Firen**  
**Freeze**  
Louis  
Rudolf  
Woody

* * *

Katarsus: Well, that's it for chapter 4. Two people down, five to go.

Aisha: So... I'm getting a POV next chapter?

Katarsus: Most likely.

Ara: Wait... Feita is the closest place to Elder, which means...

Katarsus: Yes. Ara, you'll be appearing either next chapter or the following one.

Chung: Wait. I'm coming last?

Katarsus: You're coming when I tell you to. But yes. You'll be the last one. Any more questions?

Raven: Who am I supposed to find?

Katarsus: No spoilers. Next?

Deep: When do I appear again?

Katarsus: Later. Next?

Elsword: When do I appear again?

Katarsus: Same question, same answer. Who wants the last question?

Firen: Me. Why did you make me call Rena a hottie?

Rena: And why did you make me blush when Firen called me a hottie?

Katarsus: Uh... anyways, next chapter: Synchronized Strike.

Rena: Answer our questions, Katarsus.

Katarsus: Because I'm the author's literary embodiment, and what I say, goes. Bye everyone. *darts off*


	6. Part 1 - Chapter 5: Synchronized Strike

Rena: Hey, where's Katarsus? I still need an explanation.

Firen: Yeah! And we also need to kick him for what he did.

Davis: Not here. He asked me to replace him for this chapter's introduction.

Henry: That's way too lazy.

Deep: Shut up, you're no one to talk.

Henry: Laziness is expected from me. Not from the author's literary embodiment.

Freeze: I don't think he is being lazy. I think he's just scared of Rena and Firen.

Davis: Anyways, we should get started already.

* * *

Location: Feita

Aisha's POV

"This is bad." Allegro said when I finished my explanation. "If what you're telling me is true, then Elrios is facing one of the worst threats in history."

"Not if we stop it before it grows." I replied. "That's why I need you to give Ara my message. Also, if you find one of the people in the list, please send them to Elder as soon as possible."

"Understood. I'll tell her as soon as possible. I should also tell Lento, just in case he finds something." I sighed in relief. Despite looking quite lanky, he he was very intelligent. I was sure he'd give Ara my message.

"Sounds great. Thanks, Allegro! See you later." I turned around and left. I still had to tell Raven and Chung, and they were quite far away.

As I strolled down the road leading to Velder, I started hearing a lot of noises ahead. So I decided to hurry up and follow the racket, until I arrived at the scene. I immediately hid behind some bushes and started watching.

Three glitter demons surrounded a boy with spiky brown hair and a green t-shirt covered by a slightly darker jacket. He was in a combat stance, with a grin on his face. I could notice at least four more demons lying unconscious on the ground.

Immediately, one of the demons rushed at the boy, charging with his spear. However, the boy dodged aside at the last moment, and kicked the glitter strongly in the back, making it lose its balance and fall face first on the floor. When I searched for the boy, he was already behind a second glitter, kicking it high into the air with a flip. As he landed, he started glowing a bright orange, and leaped forward at a very high speed, hitting the glitter with his knee as it was falling, and sending it flying several feet away. By the time the second glitter landed, the boy was standing on his hands, spinning as he kicked the third glitter in the face over and over again. When he got back to his feet, he crossed his hands in front of his body, and they began to glow bright orange. The third glitter didn't have time to recover from the kicks, as the boy released two orange energy blasts from his hands. The glitter was split in four different parts before I could notice.

_'Woah! How can he be so fast? Wait, hang on.' _I fumbled around, looking for my list. I began to read, and I stopped when I read the last description. _'Woody... is that him?' _I looked back to where he was before, but there was no one there. However, the first demon that he attacked now had a spear buried in its back. _'Damn, I missed my chance. Maybe I'll be able to find him if I-'_

"Enjoying the show so far?" I froze as I heard a male voice talking behind me. I turned around and saw the brown-haired boy staring at me, just two feet away from where I was hiding. "Spying on people is not very polite, you know..."

"Oh... sorry. I was just..." I tried to excuse myself, but I somehow couldn't find the words. "Uh... are you Woody?"

"Wow, how long have you been following me?" I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was joking. "Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, great! I was looking for you." I then explained the situation to him, and told him that he had to go to Elder as soon as possible. "Was there anyone else with you?"

"Actually, yes. Dennis and Davis entered that place not too long ago." He pointed at a building not too far away. A very familiar building. It was the Feita Temple, the place where all the glitters were coming from.

"Well, we've got to get them out of there now." I started running towards the temple, followed by Woody. "I'm sure Elder will not be able to hold for long if Julian strikes."

"Easier said than done. Those two can be a little problematic." Woody sighed. "Oh, you haven't told me your name."

"Aisha." I replied.

"It is nice to meet you, Aisha." He smiled at me, and I noticed I started blushing slightly.

* * *

Location: Spiral Corridor

Ara's POV

I sat on the ground, a bit tired, but not exhausted yet. It had been a long day. The glitters were unusually agitated today, as if something was disturbing them. The rest of my group sat next to me. I had volunteered to help holding off the demons, and I was put in a group with six other people. When they were offered weapons, two of them picked two-handed swords, one picked a spear, and one chose an axe. However, the remaining two did not pick any weapons at all, and spent the whole time facing the glitters in hand-to-hand combat. However, their teamwork was really impressive. While the others interfered with each other's moves, the two brawlers had a perfect synchrony, to the point where one of them attacked, and immediately the other one appeared from behind and delivered an attack of his own. At one point, a glitter was sent flying, and spent over three minutes in the air between punches and kicks before they finally allowed it to fall.

I glanced at the odd duo again. The one that had introduced himself as Davis had spiky black hair, and a blue jacket covering a long-sleeved grey t-shirt, while the one called Dennis had grey hair and a long-sleeved aqua t-shirt beneath a blue vest. They were both talking to each other about how much they enjoyed their 'training session', earning glares from the other warriors, who were lying down on the ground, visibly exhausted.

"Woah! Guys, calm down!" Davis turned to the rest, but the glares didn't stop. "No need to get angry."

"We're all on the same team here." Dennis added. "Right, Ara?"

"Of course." I replied.

"See? No need to get angry because of our fighting style." Davis continued. "It is what works best for us, so-"

He was unable to finish that sentence, as the ground started to shake below us. I quickly stood up and glanced at the others. Denis and Davis were already up and ready to fight, but the others were very tired and had to support themselves with their weapons. We all looked at the dark hallway as a gigantic figured appeared from around a corner. A massive, purple stone golem, bigger than any other we had found so far, was slowly making it's way towards us.

"Crap, that's Teach the Tyrant!"Behind me, I heard all kinds of exclamations from my companions.

I quickly picked up my spear and looked at the others. "You leave. I'll hold him off while you escape."

The four armed people immediately backed off and headed towards the exit, but the two brawlers took a couple of steps forward, until they stood beside me.

Davis looked at me with a grin, while he was bandaging his knuckles. "If you think I'm going to back away from the only decent opponent I've found today, you're crazy."

Dennis, on the other side, was stretching his legs. "It'll probably be a great fight, and I'm not going to miss it."

I giggled a bit. Their enthusiasm was truly admirable. "Okay. I'm counting on you two."

"Don't worry, we won't hold back this time." That answer caught me a bit off guard, since I didn't think they were holding back before.

As Teach started picking up speed, we assumed our combat stances. Suddenly, Davis yelled "Dibs on the first strike!" and dashed forward at full speed, followed by Dennis. I stood there for a couple of seconds, but then I snapped back to reality and ran after them. But by then, Davis had already landed the first couple of punches, while Dennis was slightly further behind, his hands glowing a bright blue. As Davis dove aside to avoid being crushed by Teach, Dennis started throwing several energy balls at him. _'Wow. I guess they were not kidding when they said they were holding back before.' _After Davis stood back up, the roles were inverted. Davis started shooting the energy balls while Dennis kicked Teach repeatedly.

"Hey, Ara! You ready?" Davis shouted, charging back at Teach. "When I say go, attack. We'll cover you."

"Okay!" I took a deep breath, and prepared for the signal. Davis punched Teach several times, then jumped in the air and kicked him in the chest. As he landed, he knelt down, allowing Dennis to step on his back and leap towards him, landing several spinning kicks before backing off. Davis then rushed forward, his hand glowing a bright blue, and gave Teach a vicious uppercut that made him stumble backwards. At that moment, he turned at me. "Now!"

I dashed at Teach at full speed and attacked him with one of my secret techniques: the Younga Way. A quick slash downwards, a powerful thrust from my skill 'Pulling Pierce', a powerful strike from my 'Double Collision' skill, and a fully charged circular slash from my 'Moonlight Slash' skill, that allowed me to jump high into the air and strike down on Teach with an earth-shattering impact. After the strike, I immediately jumped out of reach, while Davis and Dennis stared at me, completely amazed.

"Wow... that was amazing!" Davis said.

"See? That's why I never miss this kind of fights." Dennis added.

"You aren't that bad either." I replied.

"We do what we can, but we're not used to fighting things this big." Davis pointed at Teach, who was getting up.

"It's a nice experience, though." Dennis added. "So how about we finish this? I'm getting a bit hungry."

"Wow. You guys fight an awful lot, don't you?" I stared at them, completely astonished by their enthusiasm.

Davis shrugged. "It's what we do."

Dennis pointed at Teach, who was quickly approaching. "Get ready, he's coming!"

At that moment, a figured engulfed in orange light appeared in front of us, and next to him, a white mist was casted. Before we could notice, a brown-haired boy and a purple-haired girl were standing in front of us. I did not recognize the boy, but the girl was, without a doubt, Aisha.

"Aisha? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Funny story, I'll tell you later." She faced Teach, who was drawing closer. "Is everyone ready?"

"Ready!" The four of us replied simultaneously.

"Let's go, then!" The five of us dashed forward towards Teach.

* * *

"Best fight I had in a while." Davis said, lying on the ground. "We should do this more often."

The rest of the fight was quite short. A couple of spells from Aisha, a few spear strikes by me, and some coordinated attacks by the three brawlers, and Teach crumbled and fell.

"Yeah, sorry we started off without you, Woody." Dennis scratched the back of his head. "And you too, Aisha."

Aisha waved it off. "It's okay. I didn't actually thought I was going to fight today."

"Hey, Aisha? You haven't told me why you're here." I asked, a bit puzzled.

"Actually, it's about them." She pointed at the three fighters. "I was supposed to tell you that if you found anyone from this list, you should tell them to go to Elder. But that's already covered. You don't mind showing them the way, do you?

"No, not at all. I'll be glad. Besides, I'm actually enjoying their company." I looked at them once again. The three of them were talking about the fight we just had, praising each other and even cracking jokes. I couldn't avoid giggling. "They seem like a fun group."

"They are a bit odd, but they do seem nice." Aisha sighed, and stood up. "Well, got to go. I still have to warn Raven and Chung. See you later, Ara."

"Bye Aisha." As the the purple-haired magician dissapeared, I turned to the three people talking next to me. "So, should we get going?"

* * *

Remaining Fighters:

**Davis  
Dennis  
Firen  
Freeze  
**Louis  
Rudolf  
**Woody**

* * *

Aisha: Why did he make me blush?

Woody: Apparently, you can't handle smiles.

Aisha: Oh shut up.

Rena: Firen and I are going to track down Katarsus. See you later. *leaves with Firen*

Aisha: Rena, Firen, wait up. I'm coming with you*runs after them*

Dennis: That was fun. We should do it again.

Davis: The fight, or the part where we make Aisha blush?

Aisha: I heard that!

Davis: Anyways... next chapter seems to be "Three Swords." So don't miss it.

Raven: This should be interesting.

Davis: Sure. See you all then. If the author ever comes back.


	7. Part 1 - Chapter 6: Three Swords

Lost: Hey, guys! Sorry for the slow update. Anyways, welcome to Chapter 6. It's time for Raven to shine. Also, my name is The Lost Son of Gaia now. Okay, see you.

Raven: Hey! Where are you going?

Lost: Far away, before the psychos come back.

Rena: What did you say!?

Lost: I... uh...

Aisha: GET HIM!

Lost: OH HELL! *darts off*

Aisha, Firen, Rena: *chase after Lost*

Deep: Okay... just... start the damn chapter already.

* * *

Part 1 - Chapter 6: Three Swords.

* * *

Location: Velder

Raven's POV

"So I have to look around for these people, and take them to Elder, right?" I looked at the list that Aisha gave me, with three of the seven names already crossed out. "Firen, Freeze, Louis, Rudolph."

"Exactly. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all." I glanced at the list again. "These descriptions are a bit vague, but I'm sure I'll recognize them when I see them. Anything else?"

"No, that's it. I need to tell Chung, and he is in Hamel, so I should leave now. See you later!" And with that, she turned around and left.

_'I'll keep an eye out for them. But for now, I have other business to attend to.'_

Velder was struggling more than usual with the demons. They had become far more active in the previous hours, and they were attacking. So I was asked to keep them at bay while the residential area was evacuated. I immediately headed towards the Residential Area, unsheathing my blade.

However, by the time I arrived at the residential area, the place was already flooded with bodies. Glitter bodies. Most of them had deep cuts, others had strange star-shaped blades stuck in them, and some were even decapitated. I looked around, but there were no traces of any other people in the area other than myself. However, there were still glitters left. They looked very dissoriented and confused, and I took that as a chance to shadow-stepped towards the closest one.

However, before I even got close to the demon, something cut through it, and it fell to the floor. _'What? I didn't even touch it! Someone must be around here.' _I quickly switched directions and hid behind a building, to see if the attacker would show up.

* * *

Rudolf's POV

My invisibility gave me a great advantage over those things... whatever they were. The look on their faces was quite amusing, like they didn't even know what was going on. I slashed through another one, which caused even more confusion. Some of them looked around, completely freaked out, while others started stabbing the air with their spears. I heard a small noise behind me, but I didn't pay attention to it. It was probably a rat, or something. I dashed towards another one and started stabbing it until it collapsed on the floor. Then dashed left and started throwing shurikens at another one until it also fell. But I needed something more challenging. So I rushed through the five remaining, and got rid of the one in the middle of the group. I was hoping they would freak out and scatter when they saw it. However, this time, their faces showed anger. And they were all locked on me.

I looked down, and noticed that my invisibility had finally worn off. So I was completely visible, and surrounded by four angry lizard-like creatures with spears. _'Damn it! Not this again!' _It was quite common for me to suddenly find myself in the worst-case scenario because I overstimated my abilities. More than once my invisibility wore off without me knowing, and I constantly found myself walking inbetween bandits and giggling to myself while they stared at me for a couple of seconds before trying to kill me.

I pulled out my two ninjato, and prepared myself for combat. One of them rushed at me, but I parried its spear with one sword and slashed through it with the other. Then two more dashed towards me, but I quickly dodged them and threw several shurikens at them, before leaping forward and slashing through the fourth one's head.

The second and third quickly recovered from the shurikens, and charged towards me again, but before I could do anything, a shadow appeared and slashed through them repeatedly at an amazing speed, killing them both before they could even blink.

I stared at the figure. A tall man with black hair and golden eyes, wearing a black shirt and pants with a white coat on top. His left arm ended in a black, metallic claw, while the right hand holded a curved blade.

"We need to talk." The man stared at me, sheathing back his sword.

* * *

After introducing himself as Raven, he explained the situation to me. Apparently, most of my friends were on the way to a village called Elder if they weren't already there, while his friends were looking for the remaining ones, me included. And that we needed to head to Elder immediately because Julian was located in that area. After he mentioned Julian, I felt a chill running down my spine. Obviously, I didn't need any more information. "I'll go. Lead the way." He just nodded and started walking, with me following behind.

After walking a couple miles, I could feel we were being watched. After looking at Raven, I knew he felt that too. "Keep going. I've got a plan." After receiving a nod, I dashed towards the woods on the side of the road and used my invisibility technique. He kept walking, with me scouting the area around and in front of him. And then I found them. Five of those 'glitter' things, dressed in black clothes, waiting for us just a couple of metres ahead. I quietly approached from behind and cut through the closest one's throat, without alarming the rest. Suddenly, they all jumped forward, lunging at Raven, who had arrived mere seconds ago. One of them tried to stab Raven with its blades, but before it reached him, Raven dashed through the glitter, killing it before it touched the floor. _'Wow... how on Earth did he do that?'_

* * *

Raven's POV

As the glitter fell, victim of my 'One Flash' skill, I leapt forward to engage the other three. Steel met steel as their attacks were parried by my claw, while my sword was blocked by their knives. A shadow crept from behind them, slashing through one of them. I used the moment of confusion to leap forward.

**"Wolf Fang!" **I thrusted myself upwards with my claw, and slashed the glitter with both my sword and claw, killing it almost instantly. The last one was about to strike, but stopped suddenly and fell to the floor, revealing several wounds on its back. A few seconds later, Rudolf reappeared besides me. "That was good. You have some nice moves." I nodded, looking at the downed opponents. "You too. Should we keep going?" Rudolf nodded, and we resumed our travel to Elder.

* * *

Lost: *running like crazy* Chapter's done! Feedback accepted. Rate and review. STAY AWAY FROM ME!

Aisha: MAGIC MISSILE!

Lost: OH HELL NO!

Deep: You heard the (soon to be) dead writer. Next chapter: Caged Phoenix. And you better read it when it comes out.


	8. Part 1 - Chapter 7: Caged Phoenix

Katarsus: Welcome to Part 1 - Chapter 7. Today, the last Little Fighter will be found. And some surprises. So, please, take a seat, and enjoy the ac-

Elsword: When do I appear again?

Katarsus: Elsword, don't interrupt me. Seriously. It's annoying.

Davis: *whispers to Firen* I thought you wanted to kill him.

Firen: Well, we wanted to, but he said that if we hurt him, he was going to kill us in the most sadistic way imaginable. And I don't want to go through what that bandit at the beginning went through.

Bandit: *still curled up in a corner mumbling to himself*

Davis: Poor guy. I hope he is okay.

Raven: Does he seem okay to you?

Katarsus: Everyone quiet! I'm trying to do an intro here. Anyway, Chung, get ready. It's your turn to shine.

Chung: Finally!

* * *

Location: Hamel

Chung's POV

The loudspeakers could be heard throughout the entire arena, as Camille proclaimed the victor of the match. "The first semifinal of the Liberation Day Tournament has concluded! The winner is Chung!" The cheers of the crowd could be heard not only in the arena, but probably in the whole city as well.

I hurried over to where my opponent was, and quickly offered her a hand.

"Thank you, Chung." She grabbed my hand and pulled herself up. I looked at her once more. With her long black hair and dark red eyes, she was considered one of the most beautiful girls in Hamel, along with her twin sister, Alma. We'd been friends since we were young, but I'd barely had any time to talk to them lately.

"You're welcome, Luna." I smiled, and escorted her to the infirmary. Despite this being a regulated tournament, serious injuries were not ruled out. The doctors checked and treated our injuries in time for us to make it to the second semifinal. "The next semifinal is about to start. Alma Finisterra and Louis, please enter the arena."

"You better not miss this, Chung. After all, you'll have to fight my sister in the finals. You should study her movements carefully." Luna pointed towards her sister, who had already entered the arena, next to her opponent. Not surprisingly, Alma had chosen her lightest sword for this fight. She always chose agility over brute strength when she had to face heavy armored opponents. Louis, on the other hand, was once again wearing his ridiculously durable set of heavy armor, which consisted of a set of iron gloves and boots, a breastplate with a red circular ornament, a fauld around his waist, and a red cape clinging on his back. However, he didn't use a helmet, and he didn't have any weapons at all. I was quite surprised that he managed to make his way to the semifinals without using a single weapon. In fact, he relied entirely on his fists and feet to fight, using his armor to block every single attack, and even managing to dodge some of them.

Both combatants shook hands, and they took their positions. "Ready... FIGHT!" Immediately, both opponents rushed forward. I was quite impressed by Louis' speed, even though he was wearing that heavy armor. However, Alma was still a lot faster than him, and was the first one to strike, continuously slashing with her sword. However, Louis deflected all the attacks. As Alma jumped back Louis charged forward, his fist emitting a bright green glow. He threw a fast punch towards Alma, who managed to dodge it, before trying to stab through Louis' breastplate. However, the dagger couldn't pierce through the thick armor, and Louis used this chance to grab Alma's arm with both hands and begun spinning her around one, two, three, four, five, six times before throwing her away.

Somehow, Alma managed to fall on her feet, and dashed forward again. This time, however, Louis leapt forward, and threw another powerful punch towards Alma, barely missing her and hitting the floor instead, forming a small, yet noticeable crater around his hand. _'Damn. This guy is strong. I'll have to be very careful if I face him.' _Alma dashed towards Louis, while he got his hand out of the floor and faced her. Then they engaged in close combat. With Louis blocking Alma's sword slashesand throwing punches and kicks at her, and Alma dodging each strike as she tried to slash him unsuccessfully, the entire crowd was speechless. However, at one point, Louis leapt forward and began throwing an awful lot of kicks at Alma while in midair, hitting her continuously before finally kicking her away.

As she struggled to stand on her feet, Louis dashed forward again, trying to deal the finishing blow. However, before he could react, Alma threw a dagger at him, which pierced through his left shoulder. As Louis stepped back, pulling the dagger away in the process, Alma dashed forward once again, and slashed at him repeatedly, successfully stabbing his left arm, and grazing his forehead. However, Louis landed a carefully aimed punch before she could continue. As Alma stepped backwards, Louis turned sideways, lifted his right arm upwards, and then thrusted his open palm towards her, his hand emitting a faint green glow. A gust of wind shot through the arena directly at Alma, sending her flying towards the wall. She tried to stand back up, but she was too weak, and fell to the floor.

"Okay, seems like this match is over! Louis wins the second semifinal! The final match between Louis and Chung will be in one hour. Don't miss it!" The crowd went wild as they cheered the victor. But he didn't even bother to look at the crowd. He slowly walked towards Alma and lifted her up before carrying her out of the arena.

I turned towards Luna, who was completely stunned, and grabbed her shoulder, trying to snap her out of it. "Shouldn't we go check on your sister?" It took a couple of seconds before her reply came. "Huh? Oh... right." We stood up and headed towards the infirmary, where we supposed she was.

* * *

Alma's POV

_'Ugh... I feel like a building fell on top of me.' _That was my first thought when I woke up at the infirmary. I tried to sit, but the pain in my back wouldn't allow me. I could only groan and stay as still as possible. Suddenly, a calm voice reached me. "Take it easy. You hit that wall pretty hard back there." I tittled my head and saw the same blond-haired man I was fighting just a few minutes before, sitting on a bed next to mine. "Sorry about that, by the way."

"Ugh, it's okay. Sorry about your shoulder." I looked at the bandages that covered the left half of his upper body. "That must have hurt."

He looked down to his shoulder and moved it around a bit. "Don't worry. I'm a fast healer. I'll be out of these bandages in no time." He then looked at me, with a little smile on his face. "That was a great match. You are a good fighter."

"Thanks. Though next time, don't expect me to go easy on you, Louis."

I smirked, and his smile widened. "Are you challenging me to a rematch?"

I only shrugged, since there was not much I could do while I was lying down. "Maybe."

Then two people bursted loudly through the door and rushed to my side. "Hey, Alma! are you okay!?" I was quite surprised by their sudden synchronized question, but it only lasted for a moment.

"Well if it isn't my sister and 'Kitten Ears.' How are you two doing?"

I looked at the pair, and I could see Chung's face go red in embarrasment. "I told you not to call me 'Kitten Ears.' It's annoying, you know." Next to him, my sister was desperately trying not to laugh.

"Sorry. Didn't know the 'White Wolf of Hamel' had haircut issues." My sister finally lost it and started laughing. This made Chung's face go even more red. "Come on, I'm just teasing you, Chung." I tried to sit again, but the pain in my back still hadn't subsided. "Mind helping an old friend?"

"Man, I don't know. I didn't like those comments about my hair..." He then sat on my bed and assumed a thinking pose. "Let me think..."

"Oh, come on. I'm sorry. Please?" I gave him the most heart-warming puppy eyes I could pull off and started pouting.

He looked at me, and I could see by the look on his face that my method was working. "Okay, okay, stop it, I'll help you! You know I can't resist that face." As he slowly lifted my back and placed his arms around me, I could feel myself blushing slightly. But it got worse when I saw my sister making heart shapes with her hands from behind him. And the fact that Louis was still there staring at us didn't help much either.

Suddenly, someone else bursted through the doors. With purple hair and eyes, and a long staff in her hand, it was quite hard not to recognize her. "Hey, Chung! We need to talk about- " She looked at us, then at Luna -who was still making heart shapes-, then at Louis, then back at us. "Am I interrupting something?"

Chung and I looked at each other, and he quickly let me go, making me fall on the bed once again. "No, nothing's going on, Aisha! We swear! We're just... " Chung looked at me, then at Luna, then at Louis. "We're rehearsing a play! A play where one of the characters is lying ill in bed! Right, guys?"

"Sure, let's say you were..." Luna smirked, rising an eyebrow.

Aisha giggled. "Really? Which play are you and... " She looked at me, thinking for a second. It was normal for most people to confuse us. We were twins after all. "Alma. You're Alma, right?" I shook my head. This was one of my favorite moments, when someone guessed correctly who was who and we told them they were wrong anyway. "I see. So, what play are you and Luna rehearsing, Chung?"

"Don't listen to her, Aisha. I'm the real Luna. She is pretending to be me again." My sister grabbed my hand. "After all, that's what she does when she wants to 'rehearse plays' with Chung." I could feel my face heating up as I turned towards Luna.

Both Chung and I glared at her while she started whistling and hid behind Louis. Aisha stared at him for a couple of seconds before returning to us with a serious face. "Who's the quiet guy?" She whispered to us.

"If I'm not mistaken, his name is Louis. He is my opponent for the tournament's final match. Why do you ask?" Chung replied quickly.

Aisha reeled back, looking surprised. Then she looked at Louis again, who was focused talking to the girl hiding behind him. "Well, do you remember that I wanted to talk to you about something? Well..."

* * *

Louis' POV

"Are you both sure about this?" A black haired woman asked us. "It's not going to have a good repercusion, you know."

"We're sure, Camille. We want to postpone our match until further notice." Chung replied.

"And both parts agree?" This time, she looked at me. I nodded, and she let out a deep sigh. "If you wish..." She grabbed her microphone, tapped it a couple of times, and began her announcement. "Attention, everyone. Due to recent events, both contestants have decided to postpone their final match until further notice. Therefore, the final match of this tournament will not take place today. Thank you." She turned of her microphone, and the complaints of the crowd could be heard through the whole commentary room. "They're going to hate me for this."

"Relax. We'll be back in no time." Chung gave her a thumbs up.

"We should be going." Intervened Aisha. "There's a long way back to Elder."

"Yeah. See you around, Camille." Chung waved and we left the room. If what Aisha said was true, and Julian was already gathering another army, his invasion would begin soon. We had to arrive to Elder as soon as possible.

As we were heading out of the city, we were stopped by two girls.

"Mind if we join too?" One of them stepped forward, her red eyes locked right on mine. "Seems like you're going to have fun."

"Please?" The other started pouting while looking at Chung with puppy eyes.

"Fine by me. The more help we can get, the better." I smiled at the twin I supposed was Luna, while the hypothetical Alma was still looking at Chung with her puppy eyes. "Cut it out, Alma! You can come with us, just stop it! Please, you're killing me!"

"I know. That's why it is so fun." Alma giggled and turned around, with a wry smile on her face.

* * *

Location: Bethma

The journey was quite long, since Hamel was literally on another continent. However, we had plenty of time to get to know each other better. Well, I got to know everyone better. They already seemed to know each other, so they only had to catch up with recent events.

We stopped at Bethma to get a few supplies for the rest of our trip. Soon we were ready to resume our journey towards Elder. However, we were stopped by two swordsmen. One of them had red hair, eyes and clothes. The other one had black hair and a yellow t-shirt with its sleeves ripped off. Both of them were covered in cuts and bruises, and their clothes were really damaged. Aisha was the first one to react. "Elsword? Deep? What are you two doing here? And what happened to you?"

"It's a long story." Deep looked rather grim as he spoke. "You may want to sit down."

* * *

Katarsus: Before we leave, I want to formally introduce you, ladies and gentlemen, to my first OCs. Please welcome Alma and Luna Finisterra.

Alma: Hi, everyone!

Luna: It's nice to meet you all.

Katarsus: Okay, now that we covered that, next chapter, I will ex-

Elsword: Why are they both girls?

Katarsus: Because I had to even the numbers a bit. It was 13 to 4, for God's sake! Also, I think I left quite clear earlier that I don't like being interrupted. As the Ancient Roman Rules of Character Behavior state: "Scriptoris literarum incarnatio nec interrumpere.** Nec, nec, NEC!**"

Elsword: *reels back as Katarsus shouts the third nec* Surec? But isn't there an exception?

Katarsus: No. Precisely, the second part of said rule says "Sine excepcione, **nec interrumpere, idiotae.**"

Elsword: Fine, fine. I won't interrupt anymore.

Katarsus: Good. Next chapter: The Invasion Begins. See you all then!


	9. Part 1 - Chapter 8: The Invasion Begins

Katarsus: Hello, people! Welcome to Chapter 8. We are near the end of Part 1, and things will start getting serious.

Alma: What do you mean by serious?

Katarsus: Stronger enemies, more vicious battles, romance... *winks eye at Luna*

Luna: Why are you winking at me? Alma was the one 'rehearsing plays' with Chung!

Alma: Really? I saw you way too amused talking to Louis back there.

Louis and Chung: *looking at each other*

Rena: You're not hooking me up with Firen, are you?

Firen: Hey! What's wrong with me?

Katarsus: Nothing is definitive. Also, you people shall now start calling me Lost. Anyway, let's start, shall we?

* * *

Part 1 - Chapter 8: The Invasion Begins

* * *

Two days ago...

Location: Elder Outskirts

Henry's POV

The swords clashed once again, and both swordsmen were thrown away from each other. They had been sparring for 6 hours, and they looked like they could go on for 6 more. Hell, even 12 more! I was supposed to keep track of the score, but I fell asleep after the 50th match, so I had no idea who was winning. All I knew was that Deep won the previous one, and that Elsword had won the one before that. Also, at some point, John had decided to show up, reading a book about magic that Aisha lent him. I looked back at the two sparring opponents, who were already clashing swords again.

"Don't you ever get tired? You've been fighting all morning! Besides, I need some breakfast." Neither swordsman bothered to look at me, since they were in the middle of yet another power struggle. "Hey, guys..." Nothing. "Guys..." Still nothing. "Hey!" Less than nothing. "Meh... why do I bother... " I sighed, and closed my eyes again, drifting to sleep.

* * *

A faint smell of burning reached my nose and slowly woke me up. _'What's with the smell? Who's burning stuff near me? Why does my foot feel so cold? Wait... Crap!' _I quickly jumped up and away and looked at my feet. One of my boots was engulfed in flames, and the other one was covered in ice. After putting the fire out, I glared at the two people behind this prank. "Goddamnit, what's wrong with you two!?" The two men looked at each other, and one of them started laughing. "It's not funny, Firen!" I snapped, reaching for my bow. He noticed this and started to back away immediately, hiding behind a tree.

"Well, I've got to admit that your reaction was quite funny." Freeze replied.

I sighed and lowered my bow, and began looking around. Neither swordsman was there anymore. I turned back towards Firen and Freeze. "When did you two get here anyways?"

Firen slowly left his hiding spot after realising I was not going to shoot him. "We came about fifteen minutes ago. Dennis told us you'd be sleeping here."

"Wait.. Dennis is here too?"

"Dennis, Davis and I got here about two hours ago." I turned around to find a brown-haired man leaning against a tree, smiling at me. "I'd try not to sleep so much if I were you, Henry. You're missing important stuff."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Woody..." Firen intervened, "He almost kills me when I woke him up."

Freeze slapped Firen in the back of the head. "Stop exaggerating. He didn't even shoot you."

I looked towards Freeze and nodded. "Thank you, Freeze."

"He's too lazy to do it anyway."

After that, Freeze ducked to dodge the rock I threw at him, which ended up hitting the tree where Firen was hiding just a few moments ago.

I could hear Woody chuckling behind me. "Can you go inside and greet the other newcomers now? Or are you going to take yet another nap?"

* * *

Ara's POV

"This place is amazing!" Dennis jumped straight onto the couch, followed by Davis, who sat quietly, "I wish I had a house like this!"

"It's nice," Davis added, "And quite big. How many people live here again?"

"We are seven in total," Eve replied, "Elsword, Rena, Ara and I are here right now, while Aisha, Chung and Raven are still looking for your friends."

"I still don't know how we are supposed to fit so many people in this house," I intervened, "I mean, we don't have space for ten people in our living room."

"We will probably have to share bedrooms with someone," Eve said, "That way, we can fit everyone in the bedrooms if we can accommodate up to three people in each one."

"I propose the four of us have a sleepover!" Rena's voice echoed from the kitchen, "We'll be able to accommodate more people in the rooms that way. Plus, it'll be fun!"

"I like it," I replied, turning towards Eve, "What do you think?"

"The proposal sounds okay," Eve said, "However, I'm not letting any of them sleep in my room."

At that moment Rena walked into the living room, with a trail full of tea cups. "Well, then we'll have the sleepover in your room."

"What? No!" Eve began protesting, "I refuse to let you all sleep in my bedroom!"

But it was useless, and Eve knew it. Nasod, human, demon or whatever, you can't ever expect to win an argument against an elf. Specially not Rena.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Rena smiled widely at Eve, who in return looked away, "Besides, you don't have too much choice. Either you let us sleep in your room, or some of the men who arrived recently will."

After some thinking, Eve gave a sigh. "Fine. But just for one night. And not tonight. There is still enough space in the other bedrooms to allow us to sleep in our respective ones."

At that moment, a brown-haired man with an orange shirt and a bow on his back walked inside, followed by Woody.

"Look what I found under a tree!" Woody exclaimed, pointing at the archer.

"Well if it isn't the Sleeping Beauty!" joked Davis, "How did you sleep, Henry?"

"You know, that joke got old by the 634th time," retorted Henry, "But I slept fine. That is, until two people who I'm not going to name, woke me up by setting one of my feet on fire, and freezing the other one."

"Oh, that's a tough one..." Davis assumed a fake thoughtful pose, and pretended to think for a few seconds, until he finally gave his answer, "I know! It was Firen and Freeze, right?"

"Haha, very funny," Henry sighed, "Anyway, it's nice to see you again... I guess."

He then turned towards me and Eve. "I'm Henry, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Oh right!" Rena proceeded to introduced us, "This girl here is Eve, and that one is Ara."

"It is nice to meet you too," greeted Eve.

"Yeah, nice to meet you Henry," I added.

"Thanks," he replied. After that, he stretched his arms. "Well, I guess I'll go back outside. It's such a great day to waste it inside a house..."

"Don't lie to them, Henry," Firen's head popped out from behind the door frame that lead outside, "You're going to go take yet another nap. Why do you even bother waking up, if the only thing you do is going to sleep aga-" his speech was cut because Henry decided to just straight up shoot an arrow at Firen, cutting a few locks of gold hair that fell to the floor.

"Go ahead, keep talking..." Henry said, while everyone else just stared at him wide-eyed, then at the pale Firen, who was touching his head.

"Yeah... you should probably go outside. The fresh air can be good for you, you know..." Dennis nervously said.

Henry just nodded and walked outside. A few seconds later, Firen came inside, looking a bit pale.

"What... was that?" was all I could ask.

Davis was the one who replied to me. "Don't worry. He's not like that all the time. Only when you wake him up by _setting his foot on fire..._" he explained, looking at Firen as he said that last part, "...or something like that."

"Yeah, he is a calm guy most of the time," added Dennis, "So don't worry. A small nap, and he'll be as good as new."

"Well, I hope so," I looked back at the door that Henry exited through. He was right. Despite being a quite cloudy in the distance, the weather was really nice. The evening sun was shining bright, although it was almost dusk, and the sky was slowly taking a nice orange tonality. It was really inviting.

And apparently Rena thought so too. "Hey, how about we all have an evening picnic? I'll go prepare the food right now!"

And with that, she darted back towards the kitchen, without giving anyone time to object. Eve and I looked at each other, and she nodded slightly. I sighed and headed to my bedroom to get ready for the picnic we were obviously going to have.

* * *

Davis' POV

Even though Rena didn't even bother in preparing something with at least a little bit of meat, the picnic came out nicely. After we finished eating, we sat to watch the sunset. Henry joined us by that time, in a way better mood than before after taking a small nap. Eventually, dusk gave room to the night. Sadly, the weather got pretty bad by nighttime, so we couldn't watch the starts like we intended before coming back, so we had to pack up everything and return to the house before a storm caught us outside.

Once in the house, we had to pick our rooms, and our roommates. It's not too difficult to guess who slept where.

"I said no! I'm not sleeping with flame boy!" Deep yelled.

And who complained first.

"Yeah, I think I agree with him," Firen added, "I don't want to get killed in my sleep anyway."

Deep glared at Firen, who just sat quietly on the couch.

"I don't mind sharing my room with Deep," Elsword intervened, "Firen can go to Raven's room."

"So he'll end up with me..." Henry sighed, "How surprising."

"It's not like you won't be able to sleep, Henry," Davis said, "In fact, I'm sure you'd be able to sleep in an oven. Or in hell."

"Besides, it's great if you want to eat something hot!" Dennis added, "He just has to hold it in his hands for a few minutes, and done."

"So let's make sure we all know our places," said Eve, "Elsword and Deep will sleep in Elsword's room; Freeze will sleep with John in Aisha's; Dennis, Davis and Woody go to Chung's; Firen and Henry go to Raven's; and Rena, Ara and I will sleep in our respective rooms. Any questions?" Everyone shook their heads. "Good."

"Dinner will be ready soon!" said Ara, who was cooking in the kitchen. "Did you set up the table yet?"

"I'm on it!" replied Rena. "Why don't you guys take a seat?"

* * *

The food was nothing from another world. Literally. We had steak and mashed potatoes, and some salad for Rena, since it was quite obvious by now that she was a vegetarian. I was hoping we would have something fancier, but it was tasty anyway. Although we had to take turns to eat, since they had only enough silverware for seven people.

After dinner, we all talked a bit more, then we headed to our respective bedrooms. Chung's bedroom was painted in blue, and not too decorated. His desk had a few bottles filled with various liquids, a couple of books on alchemy, and a few blueprints. The room only had one bed, which Woody took almost as soon as the door opened, by teleporting right next to it and dropping his stuff on top, but the girls were kind enough to give Dennis and I a few blankets, pillows and two sleeping bags to sleep with, obviously on the floor since they didn't have any spare mattresses.

"What a day, huh?" I was the first one to talk, as usual, since I was always the least tired one.

"Yeah, it was great," replied Dennis with a grin, "specially the picnic outside. The scenery was amazing."

"I knew you'd say something like that," retorted Woody. "You always do."

"I bet that if a lightning fell on top of you, you'd thank the sky for the free electricity," I added.

"Davis, if you weren't my friend, I'd feel extremely offended, you know?" Dennis looked at me, still smiling. Whether you like it or not, you've got to admire his optimism and overall good mood in any situation. I've been his friend since we were kids, and I don't recall ever seeing him angry at all. "Besides, I'm not like that all the time, right?"

"Do you want me to tell you the truth, or should I just say no?"

"Relax, Dennis," Woody interrupted. "Everyone has flaws. Deep is very short-tempered, Henry is lazy, Louis is competitive, Davis is cynical, sarcastic, annoying..."

"Thanks for the moral support, Woody," I replied. "I feel a lot better now..."

"The point is," Woody continued, "that all those flaws, as well as our virtues, are what define us."

"Really?" Dennis looked at Woody, quite intrigued. "So what do you think is your flaw, Woody?"

"I'll tell you that," I replied. "His flaw is that he didn't hit on the purple-haired girl that was with him when we faced that golem."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Woody said, turning around. "Yeah, Aisha is cute and everything, but it's really not that big of a deal."

"Oh, come on, Woody!" I stood up and jumped towards Woody, still inside my sleeping bag. "You got to admit that you liked her."

"Plus, she seems to be really nice," Dennis added. "If I were you, I'd ask her out right away."

"Then why didn't you do it?" Woody asked, turning towards Dennis.

"She's not really my type," Dennis replied. "I'd prefer a more... what's the word... gentle girl."

"Oh..." Woody's face lit up slightly as he smirked. "Like Ara and Rena, right?"

"Really?" I turned towards Dennis, raising an eyebrow "So which one is it, Dennis?"

"Yeah, Dennis," added Woody. "Which one?" He then turned towards me, smiling. "I bet $10 it's Rena. He smiles even more when she is around."

"Nah, I'm sure it's Ara," I replied. "He talks to her a lot more."

As we were discussing, a loud noise came from afar. Dennis, who's face was quite red by now, quickly stood up and rushed to the window. "Hey! Look! Something is happening outside!"

We both rushed to the window, and froze in the spot. The clouds in the sky had turned red, and below, the whole village had turned into a flaming inferno. But instead of the regular red and orange, this fire was bright purple, same as the random explosions that were occuring every few seconds.

The three of us looked at each other, then back at the flaming village, in complete silence. That is, until Dennis finally spoke, with his eyes wide open.

"Looks like we won't have to sleep on the floor today, Davis."

* * *

Lost: Finally! It's finished!

Elsword: *staring at Lost*

Lost: What?

Elsword: ...when is my sister coming?

Lost: What are you talking about?

Elsword: My sister. In this fanfic. When?

Lost: I don't know. What's so special about her anyway?

Raven: She's the new playable character.

Lost: Oh... *pause* WAIT, WHAT!? *rushes to the ElWiki* SWEET MOTHER OF THE TOOTH FAIRY! *Now fanboying, please wait...*

Elsword: So? When?

Lost: *Now fanboying, please wait...*

Elsword: *sighs and looks at the rest* So, what now?

Dennis: Thank you for reading! Please rate and review!

Deep: Or else...

Davis: Deep's right. You don't want to know what "else" is.

Henry: It won't be pretty.

Chung: You'll end up like him. *points at the bandit*

Bandit: *STILL curled up in a corner*

Dennis: See you next time!

Lost: *Now fanboying, please wait*


	10. Part 1 - Chapter 9: Elder Ablaze

Lost: Story time, people!

Deep: Where the hell have you been? We've been bored out of our minds here!

Elsword: Yeah! You better have a decent explanation!

Lost: ... yeah. It's good to see you too.

Raven: What do you have planned for us today?

Lost: Fighting. Lots and lots of fighting.

Woody: Hey, guys... sorry to interrupt, but... where is the bandit?

Bandit: *not in the corner anymore*

Lost: I wiped out his memories and gave him a new life.

Rena: Oh that's nice. Everybody deserves a second chance. What kind of life?

Lost: A woman who dies within the first minutes of the invasion.

Henry: You give awful second chances.

Luna: Can we start please? I want to know how the story goes on!

Lost: Right, right. Beginning story in 3... 2... 1...

* * *

Location: Elder

Ara's POV

Total chaos. That's the only way I can describe what I saw when we arrived at Elder. The whole city was covered in purple flames, and screams could be heard all over the place.

I covered her mouth with my hand, and I could feel my eyes widening greatly. "Oh God..."

"What happened here?" Rena looked around, completely horrified. "What happened?"

"Julian was definitely here," Woody stared at the purple flames soaring up into the sky. "And judging by this mess, he's not alone."

"Damn it!" Deep punched a wall right next to him, what cause a bit of rubble to fall on his head. "I knew this would happen! Barely 10 days have passed and the bastard already has his army back!"

"Calm down, Deep," Davis placed a hand on Deep's shoulder. "Getting angry now isn't going to solve anything."

"Well... Deep _does_ fight better when he's angry..." Dennis intervened, only getting a glare from Deep as a reply. "I mean... we should probably think of what to do now."

"We'll obviously be unable to defeat Julian if we face him by ourselves," John started explaining. "Last time, we were over 50 people and only 13 survived, us included."

"We can't just leave!" Elsword shouted. "There are people here who need our help, and I don't plan on leaving them!"

"Well, you can't just fight Julian either..." Woody meditated for a few seconds, then looked at everyone. "But I think we can help evacuate the city before everyone gets killed."

"According to what you said, the probabilities of finding survivors is already quite low," Eve said. "If we want to find any, we'll have to move quickly."

"I think we should split in groups," I proposed. "One group helps with the evacuation, while the other one holds back... whatever those things are."

"Dibs on the evacuation group."

"Henry... we are not going to decide the groups like that," Freeze, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. "I think we should hold back Julian and his army, while Elsword, Rena, Eve and Ara help with the evacuation."

"That makes sense," John added. "We know how Julian and his goons fight, so it would maximize the damage we can deal to his army."

"And we know this city really well," Eve concluded. "So we can navigate through it with ease."

"Alright, it's settled then!" Rena turned towards my friends and smiled slightly. "Let's go, we have a lot to do!" I saw Elsword muttering something, and she patted his head. "And no complaining."

* * *

Freeze's POV

After the girls and Elsword left to look out for survivors, we headed to the place that seemed to have the most enemy activity.

"You're awfully quiet today, Firen." Woody pointed out. And it was true. Ever since the incident with Henry, he had barely talked.

"Oh... yeah... sorry about that..." Firen still looked quite nervous, even though that misunderstanding had happened at least 6 hours before.

"Firen, try to relax a bit," Dennis patted his shoulder. "It's no good to get stressed over that. I'm sure Henry didn't mean to shoot an arrow at you. You can always apologize to him later."

"Uh... Dennis..." Davis started muttering.

"Besides, it's not like he hates you or anything. In fact, I think you are one of the people he gets along with easier."

"Dennis..."

"Plus, he's not crazy enough to kill you. He knows we'd be on his ass quicker than you can say-"

"Dennis... I'm right here," Henry was walking right next to Dennis, and he didn't look pleased at all. "I've been walking right next to you for the past 10 minutes."

"Oh! I... uh..." Dennis quickly looked around, then rushed in a random direction. "Hey! No one checked out that building!"

Deep facepalmed and let out a deep sigh. Meanwhile, Davis started talking to Woody, and then they looked at us. "Hey guys, want to join our little bet?"

* * *

Dennis' POV

After leaving the others before Henry tried to shoot me, I actually felt curious about the random building I had entered. So I decided to check it out. It was a small and comfy house, of maybe 4 or 5 rooms. And I say maybe because I only entered 2. The first one had nothing interesting. But when I arrived to the second one, I was greeted by a blade that stopped only a few centimeters away from my face.

"Can I help you?" The owner of the blade, a young red-haired man smirked as he tipped my chin with a huge axe.

"No, thanks. I'm good." I glanced at the boy for a few seconds. He had blue eyes, and wore a red t-shirt beneath a black coat, a pair of dark, worn-out jeans, and two leather boots. Quite stylish, if you ask me. "Hey, would you pull that away? Having blades so close to my throat kind of makes me nervous."

The boy studied my face for a while, and then he pulled away his weapon. "Sure. You don't seem to be dangerous," He then extended his hand towards me. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay. It's always good to be cautious..." I looked around as I shook the guy's hand. Besides him, there was a young, white-haired girl with a lollipop. She looked at me curiously with her big, green eyes, like she was trying to mentally solve a puzzle without moving a single piece. I returned my gaze to the boy that was now sitting next to the girl. "Oh! I'm Dennis, by the way."

"Dewon. And this girl is Echo," Dewon looked at the girl, then back at me. "I was actually at her shop when all this happened."

"But what exactly happened?"

"I can't tell you all the details," Dewon assumed a thinking pose "but I can tell you that we heard a huge explosion outside, and when we left the shop, everything was in flames. Echo told me we shouldn't stay in her shop because of all the flammable liquids she has stored, so I brought her here."

"Flammable liquids?" I turned towards Echo. "Do you sell fuel or something like that?"

"I'm an alchemist," Echo kept sucking on her lollipop. "I work with dangerous substances all the time."

"Oh... that's cool." I actually lied a bit there, since I had no idea what an alchemist was. But that was not really important at the time.

Dewon looked out the window, staring into the purple flames that rose from within the burning buildings with a worried expression. "I've never seen something like this before."

"Hey, don't worry," I knelt down in front of Dewon and Echo. "My friends are over there right now, and will try to stop them for as long as possible. Meanwhile, you two should probably leave the city."

"And run away from a fight? You clearly don't know me."

"Not really, but I know what we are dealing with. Besides, we can't just leave Echo alone. Trust me. Me and my friends, we know what we are facing."

* * *

Deep's POV

_'What... the hell... is that thing?'_

* * *

Lost: Done!

Deep: Seriously? That's it!? JUST A THOUGHT!? THAT'S MY WHOLE POV!?

Lost: Don't worry about it. You'll have the first POV in the next chapter. I promise.

Deep: It better be true.

Alma: I like how the story is going so far.

Elsword: It needs way more action.

Lost: Alright. But keep in mind that more action means more risk of death. *evil smile*

Henry: Yeah... I think I'm not going to appear in the next chapter...

Lost: Of course you are.

Henry: You can't make me.

Lost: Of course I can.

Dennis: Oh, come on, Henry! It'll be fun!

Henry: I doubt it.

Elsword: Wanna switch?

Lost: No switching.

Elsword: Oh, come on!

Rena: Well, that's it for this chapter! Please rate and review! We'll all appreciate it!

Eve: Feedback is greatly encouraged. It helps improve not only this story, but also future works by the author.

John: You heard them. Help the author. He'll truly appreciate it.

Lost: I sure will. Well, see you all next time!


End file.
